A Confused streaming system - Mutec / SOtM Ultra

[David A]

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@David A - Some very wise words in your post!  In fact, there is only one point I do not fully agree with, you mention "There could be several reasons but I strongly suspect that part of it is simply that you're noticing the presence band more because of the aspects of the sound that you're paying attention to"  In part, you are correct, I have most definitely been paying attention to treble and the presence band, no doubt about it.  But this is missing the point, prior to installing the SOtM kit, I was not paying attention to treble or the presence band.  It is a case of after installing the SOtM kit, the treble and presence band become subjectively more prominent, and this is why I started to pay so much attention to it.  Yes, this might be a bit of a vicious circle, but I remain intrigued as to why improving resolution of the HF makes it subjectively more prominent.  Oh, and there is no shortage of bass with the Blades!  Yes, the peaks and nulls could be tidied up, but the Blades are showing decent levels down to 10Hz, which is adequate.  That said, now that I have entered the room correction rabbit hole, tidying up the LF end of things has to be a good idea, something for the future.  I absolutely agree with your point about making changes slowly though.  My own rule is never change more than one thing at a time.  If you can A/B test the change, do so, this provides a good reference.  Then, live with the change for at least a month before changing anything else, it is not until you have lived with something for a while that you really understand it.  In the case of my recent changes, I had my reasons for not following my own rules, in hindsight, this was a big mistake!
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Maybe I didn't make that point as well as I could.

When we make changes it's the differences that tend to grab our attention. If something changes, it often tends to "stick out like mad" and for some time after the change every time  we sit down to listen we notice and pay attention to that change. It's hard to avoid because we're hearing something we aren't used to hearing and until we become used to hearing things the way they now are we keep paying attention to the change and not paying as much attention to the things we're used to, the things which didn't change.

The things which highlight increased resolution are usually in the presence region and while we're paying attention to that increase in resolution we aren't going to be giving the same amount of attention to the bass and lower mid-range but we are going to be more aware of what's going on in the presence range even when it doesn't relate to resolution. We may not be aware of those things as much as we are of the increased resolution but we're probably still more aware of those things which are closer in frequency to where we're noticing the increase in resolution than we are of things happening in the lower mids and bass.

Over time as we become used to the change and expect to hear the difference it brought as part of the sound, we pay less attention to it and start to get back to attending more to the music than to the sound. When you do that I suspect you'll find that you aren't as aware of the presence range as you are now because you will be spreading your attention more evenly over whole of the sound you're hearing.